An English woman on the bus from Scarborough to Liverpool told me I speak very good English.
I didn't respond. I just slowly looked away.
I went to Liverpool, a 5-hour trip from Lauren's hometown, simply to fly back to Milan. I didn't get to see the sites, unless you count the John Lennon Airport as part of the tour.
When I finally reached Liverpool and hopped on the bus labeled "airport shuttle" I said to the driver, "There's only one airport in Liverpool, right?"
"Well, there's the Paul McCartney." he said with a believable tone.
Luckily, I'm not that gullible. Otherwise, he might have had me running to the bus parked "just past the shuttle to the Ringo Starr and George Harrison Train Station." (They were never indispensible enough to warrant their own transport centers.)
Instead I walked to my seat, imagining how the bus driver must repeat a variation of that joke to a lot of out-of-towners.
On the ride to the airport I spotted a small, murky body of water. "Is that the pool?" I thought. That's when I realized, for the first time in my entire life how distasteful the name "Liverpool" really is. Other countries in the world use picturesque terms to describe their water-related cities...Oceanside, Laguna Beach, etc.
"Liver" is a slimy meat of an indeciferable color (between grey and brown). In my brain it's associated with Dad's "dinner suggestions" that he made simply to get his daughters riled up. (In later years he realized the reply "chili dogs" would get the same reaction from me.)
England also has a city called Blackpool. Sounds Inviting!
Onto Istanbul...
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3 comments:
No comment for the lady on the bus? Hope to hear from you soon---Istanbul, Bodrum, ---Love, Mom!
that lady on the bus - did she think you were from italy, and was complimenting you on your english skills?
We had been having a conversation. Then she said that. I had no idea what to say. Perhaps she was a former grammar teacher and found my lingual skills especially impeccable. Or maybe she had never heard an American accent and assumed I must be from a non-English-speaking nation. I wasn't trying to be rude...just simply became speechless.
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